Medieval wayside cross in St Ivo's churchyard, 0.3m south of the church

List Entry Summary

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Medieval wayside cross in St Ivo's churchyard, 0.3m south of the church

List entry Number: 1014014

Location

The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:

District: Cornwall

District Type: Unitary Authority

Parish: St. Ive

National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.

Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.

Date first scheduled: 16-Feb-1996

Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: RSM

UID: 26247

Asset Groupings

This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description

Summary of Monument

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Wayside crosses are one of several types of Christian cross erected during the
medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. In addition to
serving the function of reiterating and reinforcing the Christian faith
amongst those who passed the cross and of reassuring the traveller, wayside
crosses often fulfilled a role as waymarkers, especially in difficult and
otherwise unmarked terrain. The crosses might be on regularly used routes
linking ordinary settlements or on routes having a more specifically religious
function, including those providing access to religious sites for parishioners
and funeral processions, or marking long-distance routes frequented on
pilgrimages.
Over 350 wayside crosses are known nationally, concentrated in south west
England throughout Cornwall and on Dartmoor where they form the commonest type
of stone cross. A small group also occurs on the North York Moors. Relatively
few examples have been recorded elsewhere and these are generally confined to
remote moorland locations.
Outside Cornwall almost all wayside crosses take the form of a `Latin' cross,
in which the cross-head itself is shaped within the projecting arms of an
unenclosed cross. In Cornwall wayside crosses vary considerably in form and
decoration. The commonest type includes a round, or `wheel', head on the faces
of which various forms of cross or related designs were carved in relief or
incised, the spaces between the cross arms possibly pierced. The design was
sometimes supplemented with a relief figure of Christ and the shaft might bear
decorative panels and motifs. Less common forms in Cornwall include the
`Latin' cross and, much rarer, the simple slab with a low relief cross on both
faces. Rare examples of wheel-head and slab-form crosses also occur within the
North York Moors group. Most wayside crosses have either a simple socketed
base or show no evidence for a separate base at all.
Wayside crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval
religious customs and sculptural traditions and to our knowledge of medieval
routeways and settlement patterns. All wayside crosses which survive as earth-
fast monuments, except those which are extremely damaged and removed from
their original locations, are considered worthy of protection.

This medieval wayside cross has survived reasonably well. The south face of
the head and shaft display an unusual incised design. The cross is believed to
have been located at a junction on the main route between St Ive and
Quethiock, where it would have functioned both as a waymarker and a boundary
stone between the two parishes, so fulfilling two of the major roles of
wayside crosses. In its present position the cross functions as a symbol of
the ancient link between the Church of St Ivo and the Knights Templars and
Hospitallers, showing one form of the post-medieval development of wayside
crosses and illustrating the changing attitudes to religion that have
prevailed since the Reformation.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a medieval wayside cross situated within the churchyard
at St Ive, in south east Cornwall.
The wayside cross survives as an upright granite slab set on a modern
rectangular base. The overall height of the monument is 0.93m. The cross
stands 0.71m high above the granite base. The head measures 0.33m high by
0.38m wide and 0.16m thick. The south principal face displays an equal limbed
cross with slightly expanded limbs. The cross is formed by incised lines and
is in light relief, the quadrants between the limbs are in high relief, giving
the cross the appearance of being recessed. The lower limb of the cross
extends down the top of the shaft, and a narrow groove runs from the mid-point
of the base of this limb down the length of the shaft. The top limb is
truncated by a fracture across the top of the head. The sides of the head are
also fractured, the original round shape has been altered, and the sides
of the head have been straightened in line with the shaft. Below each of the
side limbs is a narrow groove, 0.02m wide, which runs parallel with the side
limbs for 0.08m, then turns to run down the length of the shaft. On the north
principal face a relief equal limbed cross with slightly expanded limbs is
displayed. The top limb is truncated by a fracture across the top of the head.
The lower limb has been removed by a niche or recess immediately below the
centre of the cross motif. This niche measures 0.57m long by 0.17m wide and
0.04m deep; it has a rounded top, and continues down the length of the shaft.
The lower edge of the niche on the east side is fractured. The shaft measures
0.38m high by 0.35m wide and is 0.2m thick; the east side has a 0.03m
diameter cement filled hole at its base. The shaft is cemented into the
rectangular granite base which measures 0.49m east-west by 0.32m north-south
and is 0.22m high. The south side of this modern base slopes at an angle to
the ground and bears a small metal plaque with an inscription which reads
`This stone represents the historic link with the Knights Templars and
Hospitallers who held the Advowson of this parish, and the Preceptory of
Trebeigh 1150-1540. Erected by the Liskeard and Callington branches of the Old
Cornwall Society 1981'.
The cross is located in the churchyard of St Ivo's immediately south of the
church and to the east of the south porch. It was found in 1965, about 100m
south east of its present location, in the garden of the former rectory, now
The Chantry, at St Ive. The historian Ellis in 1966 suggested that this cross
may have marked the parish boundary between St Ive and Quethiock parishes,
possibly at a junction where the road to Quethiock meets the route from St Ive
to Menheniot. The small hole in the east side of the shaft may result from its
former reuse as a gatepost, as may the mutilation of the wheel head. The
niche in the north side also indicates an unknown former reuse of the cross.
The cross now functions as a symbol of the ancient link between the church of
St Ivo and the Knights Templars and Hospitallers. The Knights Templars
possessed the manor of Trebigh until 1314 when they were suppressed and the
manor passed to the Hospitallers who owned it until the Reformation in 1538.
The Knights Templars had a church at Temple on the south west side of Bodmin
Moor, which with the manor of Trebigh was known as the Preceptory of Trebigh.
Trebigh is 460m west of St Ivo's church.
The metalled surface of the modern footpath and its wooden edging strip
passing to the south of the cross and the iron grating 1.14m to the north east
of the cross are excluded from the scheduling, where they fall within the
cross's protective margin, but the ground beneath is included.
The cross is Listed Grade II.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

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